Diamond Dirt: Throwback uniforms are nice alternates

I must admit it’s pretty cool. There’s just some things about baseball that fade away over time, and the vintage uniforms are one of them. It’s a nice little touch and marketing ploy for fans. If I was in Texas, I’d surely like to try and snag Astros tickets for a Friday night. It’d be a nice, nostalgic game to attend.

By Dominic Genetti

Canton Daily Ledger - Canton, IL

By Dominic Genetti

Posted Apr. 10, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 10, 2012 at 9:16 AM

By Dominic Genetti

Posted Apr 10, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 10, 2012 at 9:16 AM

The uniforms from long ago are a big fad in baseball these days.

Texas is bringing back their original jerseys worn from their first season after moving from Washington. San Francisco brought back some former road jerseys from long ago. And the Houston Astros plan “Flashback Fridays” where they’ll wear their original uniforms from their days as the Houston Colt .45s.

I must admit it’s pretty cool. There’s just some things about baseball that fade away over time, and the vintage uniforms are one of them. It’s a nice little touch and marketing ploy for fans. If I was in Texas, I’d surely like to try and snag Astros tickets for a Friday night. It’d be a nice, nostalgic game to attend.

And catching a Giants road game with their old uniforms from the late ‘80s, early '90s would certainly take me back to a day at Busch Stadium with my dad where Giants phenom Will Clark was so mad over being ejected from a game, he began to throw helmets and other equipment onto the field.

Random days of throwbacks are nice. It just adds to the generational stories baseball allows us to tell. One day a fan can say, “I remember a game when they wore those uniforms.” However, teams falling back to their old looks for shear luck or just to bring the fans out to the ballpark, isn’t the best move.

The most notable uniform backtracks can be found in Toronto and Baltimore.

The Blue Jays have gone back to the uniforms they wore during their most popular years when they made postseason appearances and had that big finish to their World Series Championship when Joe Carter blasted a home run to left field. Several logos and uniforms later, Toronto has fallen back to the attire that they hope will rejuvenate baseball north of the border.

Baltimore has fallen back to that smiling cartoon bird that looks about as intimidating as a Nickelodeon cartoon character from one of their toddler television programs. This too was a look the Orioles had during some successful years. It’s the uniform Cal Ripken Jr. wore when he broke into baseball, not to mention it was a uniform that made big pitcher Jim Palmer look more like a mascot than a Hall of Fame pitcher.

But the Orioles won the 1983 World Series with these uniforms, combine that with the 20th Anniversary of Camden Yards — the ballpark that has served as the model of all the new stadiums popping up — and you have a desperate cry for hope wrapped in a blanket of superstition.

A uniform is not going to make a team better, a vintage look from championships years ago isn’t going to turn a team into a world champion. It’s the right combination of players on the field, the right manager and group of coaches leading the way.

Page 2 of 2 - Marketers and team officials will always try to do anything to get fans in the stand, and I must admit old uniforms reinstated are something I want to see, but to rely on superstitions that this could do wonders for 25 men psychologically is far from correct.